The Genesis 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, like the 4-6-6-4 Challenger before it, is the culmination of design and tooling, integrating the latest innovations in electronic technology. OverviewThe Union Pacific's Overland Route, the eastern portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, was built west from Omaha, across Nebraska and Wyoming, and on into Utah. Model trains for beginners is a step-by-step guide to building your dream model railroad within the space, time and budget you have available.
Model railroad e-book to help model railroaders build, maintain and repair model railroads and model trains.. The Union Pacific's mainline through America, the fabled "Overland Route" started in Omaha, went west across Nebraska and Wyoming before entering Utah. Ce montant inclut les droits de douane, les taxes, les frais de courtage et les autres frais applicables.
Just months before Pearl Harbor, the American Locomotive Company delivered the first Big Boy to the Union Pacific Railroad. Writer Henry Comstock beautifully described the Big Boy's place at the apex of steam engine history: "A Union Pacific 'Big Boy' was 604 tons and 19,000 cubic feet of steel and coal and water, poised upon 36 wheels spaced no wider apart than those of an automobile. I spent an entire evening painting gauges, levers, and the rest, even though nobody will ever notice but me! The Big Boy model has been developed from the outset as the finest operating miniature representation of the prototype available. The steepest grade was the eastbound climb on the Echo Canyon line through the Wahsatch Mountains just east of Ogden, Utah. The steepest grade was on the Echo Canyon line through the Wasatch Mountains just east of Ogden, Utah. The UP's Department of Research and Mechanical Standards had designed the locomotive for a specific task: to pull a 3600-ton train unassisted over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. That it could thunder safely over undulating and curved track at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour was due in large measure to the efforts of two long-forgotten pioneers.
These super detailed models were a runaway hit in the past and feature near-brass detail and Tsunami sound decoders.

Forty 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotives were acquired in 1936 and 1937 to move fast freight over the grades in Utah and Wyoming.
While the Big Boy is often cited as the biggest steam locomotive ever built, in fact it is not. The new run should be available at your local dealer or hobby store in December with an MSRP of $479 for the Challenger and $499 for the Big Boy.
They were rated at 4,290 tons across Wyoming, but were limited to 3,100 tons eastbound through Echo Canyon. The UP Railroad needed a locomotive that could be used to pull a 3,600-ton train over Sherman Hill, located west of Cheyenne, Wyoming and from Ogden to Wasatch, Utah without the need for helpers.The designers decided to use a "simple" articulated locomotive.
The UP's Department of Research and Mechanical Standards had designed the locomotive for a specific task: to pull a 3600-ton train unassisted over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. The Norfolk and Western's Y6 and A, the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range's Yellowstones, and the Chesapeake and Ohio's Alleghenys were all in the same league, and some exceeded the Big Boy's weight and power. Even if I didn't put it in the weeds on the layout, it would have been a nice shelf occupier.
Union Pacific wanted something that could make the same speeds as the Challengers but could carry the entire 4,290-ton train over the Wahsatch Mountains without a helper. The easiest solution was to scale up the successful Challenger design by adding another pair of drivers to each half of the locomotive thus making a 4-8-8-4.
In 1941 UP placed an order for twenty 4-8-8-4's, numbered 4000 through 4019, with the American Locomotive Works.
Perhaps it was the name, simple and direct, scrawled on a locomotive under construction by an Alco shop worker.
According to legend an unidentified machinist at the ALCO plant is responsible for the name "Big Boy", having scrawled the name in chalk on a partially completed locomotive.Initially the Big Boys were used between Ogden, Utah and Green River, Wyoming.
Perhaps it was the name, simple and direct, scrawled on a locomotive under construction by an Alco shop worker.
Maybe it was timing, as the Big Boys hit the road just when America needed symbols to rally around.

Maybe the UP's publicity department just did a better job of telling the world what great equipment they had. The increase in traffic during WWII resulted in the Union Pacific ordering 5 more Big Boys, numbered 4020 through 4024; built in 1944. Whatever the reason, the Big Boy captured the imagination of railfans and the American public over the ensuing years, perhaps more than any other steam engine. They were coal burners with 68-inch drivers, 135,375 pounds of tractive effort and 6,000 horsepower. These versions were slightly heavier than the original order due to wartime materials restrictions.Even with the infiltration of diesel locomotives following WWII, the Big Boys and Challengers remained the prime power on the Overland Route. In many ways it is the symbolic locomotive of the American West, as big and powerful as the country it sped through.
They started service on the line from Ogden to Green River, Wyoming and their operating range soon increased to cover the line all the way to Cheyenne. Traffic during WWII resulted in 5 more Big Boys, numbered 4020 through 4024, being built in 1944.
They remained active through the 1950s and weren't retired until the early 1960s.There are eight of the twenty five Big Boys that have been preserved in the following locations #4004 in Cheyenne, #4005 in Denver, #4006 in St.
Louis, #4012 in Scranton, #4014 in Pomona, #4017 in Green Bay, #4018 in Dallas, and #4023 in Omaha. Despite the influx of diesel locomotives following WWII, the Big Boys and Challengers remained the prime power on the Overland Route. Eight of the twenty-five Big Boys have been preserved in the following locations: #4004 in Cheyenne #4005 in Denver #4006 in St.